It’s ok to not be world class or the best. There can only be so many of those. The difficulty in ranking musicianship aside, musicians of all caliber are still musicians, capable of producing sounds that delight and move audiences. Regardless of who taught you, you can choose to do something valuable for your community. Pedigrees don’t make meaningful music. Only you can.
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We’re all on the same team. Occasionally, there are people who want to sabotage you and prevent you from succeeding. Most people aren’t this way. The people in your ensemble want you to succeed. Your colleagues want you to succeed. Unless they give you a reason to doubt their intentions, musicians want to achieve the highest artististry in collaboration with their colleagues. In competition for jobs, true pros respect each other. Trust in each other and inspiring trust are the keys to the temple of true Art.
I once read that the field of design is, at its core, about noticing. For those who wish to design new ensembles, noticing must happen first. One must notice changes in taste, people who are waiting to be reached, or unusual alignments of disparate forces. Typically, there are only indications, hints, movement towards or away--much like the way one can notice a black hole. Those with the patience to sit, watch, and notice can see these phenomena and moments as opportunities to do something new, to bring new people to the table, to provide a needed service. What do you notice?
I recently discovered an orchestra channel on YouTube that features an orchestra playing relatively recent pop/ rock music. When played with an orchestra and a choir, the songs immediately have more gravity. The arrangements are simple, yet effective. When listening to them, I find myself having a genuine emotional reaction to them (and I don’t usually listen to music typically found on the radio). I think the beauty in these arrangements can be found in their simplicity. They use a variety of colors that enhance and amplify the songs and perhaps the emotional content. We should remember the power of simplicity. *You can check them out here.
What’s the difference between a music hobbyist, enthusiast, student, and professional? How do we make the distinction? Is it the amount of time that we play? Is it the amount of money that we make through our performances? Is it by being in or not in certain organizations? Is a military musician with a time-consuming collateral duty truly a “professional” musician? Is a student a professional? Is the guitarist who gigs on Friday and Saturday nights and works a 9-5 a professional guitarist?
I suppose when asking these questions, we must look at our motivations. Why do we need to define other musicians in certain boxes? Is it to help the field, to help them, or to help us feel better about what we do? Does it matter what we call ourselves? Maybe we should make music with whomever we want and not allow the labels to become a tense distraction. The world has enough tense distractions and could use more genuine musicians making genuine music. Oftentimes, we sit at the (piano) keyboard ready to start composing, the (computer) keyboard ready to start sending emails, the desk with pen in hand ready to start writing. Then, we hesitate. We think. We check our email, our phones, the news. What is it about beginning that is so scary? Are we afraid we won’t produce something of value or that we’ll be rejected? I’m still not beyond the beginning scares, but I think the solution is to start everyday, to have a habit of getting past beginning. Although I have not written a blog post everyday, I have spent the past few months focusing on just starting and moving. Many posts are not refined, and I feel like I should carefully edit them and post them later. Instead, I have adopted the approach of doing. Write and publish. Of course, this approach won’t get you your best composition or your most persuasive email. Yet, no masterwork ever existed without the author or composer first beginning. *Even Beethoven started with something very different from the final version of his 5th symphony. Here is an audio version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj2-G0RdiOI
I used to play in and do some conducting for the Intermission Orchestra at UCSD, a student-run and led orchestra that plays video game and anime music. While there, I heard and saw people play things that they didn’t know was supposed to be difficult on their instruments (the clarinets only played on Bb clarinets!). They just did it, comparing what was coming out of their instruments with they music they had grown up with. I learned to spend less time thinking about how hard something was and instead remember to think about what I could do to improve it, allowing my ear rather than my expectations and understanding of the instrument to lead my practice and performance. You just might play the impossible.
When you’re hungry, you should eat something nourishing. When you’re thirsty, you should drink water. When you’re cold, you should put on a jacket. When you’re hot, you should take your jacket off. These seem obvious. Yet, when our body tells us we’re tired or perhaps totally exhausted, we don’t sleep or rest. We see rest as weakness or a complete lack of productivity. Why? What research has shown consistently depriving ourselves of reasonably rest is more productive?
Take. A. Break. You will do better work. You will be more creative. You will notice details. You will make connections. You will be kinder. Your audience will notice, and the world you directly affect will become a little brighter. And the world desperately needs your brightness. Usually, we focus on accomplishing something--obtaining a thing, doing a thing, winning a thing. We spend some time here, some time there, and most of our time at the last minute in an exhausting sprint to the end. Then, we turn in the paper, play the recital, and repeat this giant cycle all over again. Yet, we can do a better job for our audiences and for ourselves through consistent work towards an end. As musicians, we know we need to practice nearly everyday in order to achieve great things. As those great things pass, all we have is the craft and the habits. I’ve come to believe that these habits, not accomplishments, are the treasures that define who we are. *Alex Heyne applies this to weight loss, but his book Master the Day could be applied to any goal.
Being a musician is tough. Starting a business is tough. Being a musician who is starting a business is doubly tough. We could all use a little help. Ask for help. If you don’t know what to do, ask someone who might. For me, the best form of help comes with an accountability buddy, someone who has similar goals to you and can help you establish habits that lead to success (just as you help them). The ask: “Would you be open to meeting once a week (or everyday) to come up with a plan to achieve these similar goals?” Not only do you have to meet and tell someone whether you did what you said you would, you have someone who can help you understand what went wrong if you didn’t. In helping someone else, you also might get a few ideas, too.
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